A/N: Guess who's back? Okay, I'm really, really going to try to update more frequently :)
Chapter Twenty-Two:
"Does that hurt her?"
"No, it's helping her. She's gonna be okay."
"Good."
Skye's eyes fluttered open and she looked around to figure out where she was. She was in a dimly candle lit room with needles puncturing nearly every inch of her body. They didn't hurt, but it was still something to be concerned about.
"Hey." Gordon greeted her when he noticed she had come to. "Everything's going to be okay. You're safe now."
"Gordon, where am I?"
"This is the place I told you about." Gordon explained. "You called for me. Don't you remember?"
"How long have I been here?"
"Two days."
"Two days— I need to go." Skye tried to sit up. "They need me. Something bad has happened…why can't I move? What are you doing to me? Where's my sister?"
"We're healing you." A man she didn't know spoke as he entered the room. "Your sister is right next to you. Leaving now, wouldn't exactly be— you ever made microwave popcorn?" He chuckled.. "Leave it in too long, and it's charcoal. Take it out too son and it's a bag of kernels." He turned his attention to a computer that was monitoring her vitals. "That might be the worst analogy ever. Gordo, help me out here."
"You are on your own with this one." Gordon shook his head. "I have to go now. You're in very good hands. He's smarter than he looks."
"How do you know that?" The man joked as Gordon left the room. "He's been at your side since the moment you got here."
"Who are you?"
"Sorry. I thought— I'm Lincoln, your transitioner. I— I kept forgetting you're new to this. Everyone who goes through Terrigenesis has, uh, a transitoner to help them."
"Please cut to the chase, I—" Skye cut herself off when the needles began to glow a red hue.
"Right….yeah. Let me start from the top." Lincoln grabbed a chair and sat down next to her. "Imagine a thousand years of evolution taking place instantaneously. That's what happened to you after the mist. These treatments — we're helping your body adjust properly to the change, transitioning you quickly and painlessly, I hope. We usually like to start the process right after the mist, but as—"
"—How long?" Skye interrupted. "When can I go?"
"You got places to be? People to see?" Lincoln joked once again.
"I'm worried about my friends. They're in danger."
"You're the one in danger, Skye. Remember? You're being hunted."
"Don't break anything in here." Skye admonished her sister. "And where did you get that?" She asked, referring the slingshot that Selena was playing with.
Since arriving at this new place, Skye was feeling much better than she had before. Well enough to be breathing down her little sister's neck, apparently.
"Hunter gave it to me." Selena shrugged and pulled the strap back, watching it snap back into place.
The man knew that she didn't have many toys due to their living situation, so he went out and got her a slingshot. It was fun to play with and it was practical. Now, she would have something useful to defend herself with and she could work on her aim.
"Of course he did."
"How are you feeling?" Lincoln asked.
"Kind of normal."
"Normal's good."
"Yeah."
"We flushed your lymphatic and circulatory systems, so you'll be weak for a few days, but….."
"I need to get a message to my friends." Skye insisted.
"Gordon's the only one who can make contact with the outside world. We can talk to him when he gets back."
"Where exactly are we?"
"No one really knows. Uh, the official name is Chinese, I think — Lai Shi — doesn't really translate..…So we just call it, Afterlife."
Selena didn't really feel the need to stick around and listen to the adults while they talked, so she picked up a little pebble and attached to her slingshot, firing it and the trunk of a nearby tree.
"Selena, if you break anything or hit someone with that slingshot, it's going for a timeout and so are you." Skye called ahead to her overly excited sister.
"She's okay." Lincoln assured her. "Let her have fun."
"You say the name of this place is Chinese. Are we in China?"
"No idea." Lincoln couldn't say for sure. "Gordon's the only one who knows where we are and he's the only way in or out. It keeps us secret and safe from the outside world."
"Or it keeps us prisoner." Skye muttered cynically.
"You're not very trusting, are you?" Lincoln chuckled.
"I woke up naked on a table, in a place no one can even point on a map, so…..call me crazy.'
"You weren't totally naked, and you asked Gordon to bring you here." Lincoln reminded her. "No one's forcing you to stay. It's not a bad place. The night life's a little lacking..."
He knew it was hard to get used to such a big change, but he knew that with time, Skye would learn adjust.
"So, you live here?"
"No one lives here, not permanently. It's more like a way station. I'm from Cincinnati, trying to finish med school. I'm brought here when I'm needed. Some people come here when they need a safe place to stay."
"Why do I feel like the new kid in school right now? Everyone is staring at me." Skye glanced around at everyone and sure enough, their eyes were locked on her.
"Gordon didn't explain?"
"No, I thought you said that everyone here is like me and that this happens all the time."
"Are you kidding? This has never happened! Things here have always been done a certain way. These people are descendants, yes, but most of them are waiting to be chose. They carry the genetic marker and have been brought here to be evaluated, cultured, and prepared for the change, should they be selected. But that only happens to one person every few years."
"They actually go through?"
"This tradition has been passed down through countless generations."
"And I jumped the line."
"And not only did you go through without permission or prep, but you did it old-school, with a Diviner in a Kree temple. Uh, that hasn't happened for thousands of years. You can see why some of these people might be a little envious."
"I'll gladly trade places with any one of them." Skye sighed. "I didn't want this."
"I understand."
"The woman that changed with me….Raina….Gordon took her and my father. Are they here?"
"Gordon takes people everywhere. It's his job to keep us safe. I promise, there is no one here who will harm you. You're protected." Lincoln assured her before leading her and her sister to a nicely set up room. "This is yours for as long as you want. Gordon brought your bags from the cabin, so, you know, take some time, try to relax."
"Relax?" Skye scoffed. "This will be like my fourth bed in the past week and I've already been locked up, quarantined, psychoanalyzed….that was fun."
"Let me guess, to protect you from yourself." Lincoln picked up one of her gloves. "The inhibitors these released seriously compromised the transition process. It's one of the reasons you were out for so long."
"My friend, she was just trying to help."
Skye knew that Jemma would never do anything to hurt her. She was just really out of her element and was doing the best she could with the little bit of knowledge she had.
"I mean, she thought she was dealing with human biology, but you graduated from that class. I'm gonna take a closer look at these. Meanwhile, try to get some rest. Tomorrow, maybe we'll see what gift you've been given."
"It's more like a curse." She chuckled sardonically.
"A lot of us feel that way at first, but you'll learn to control it."
"I don't want to control it. I want to get rid of it. That's why I called Gordon. I thought he'd be able to fix me."
"I'm sorry." Lincoln really did feel bad, but there was nothing he could do about it. "I thought you knew. The transition is irreversible…..You'll feel better in a few days, trust me. At least hang in here until things calm down on the outside. See what happens. Plus, it's, uh, pizza night tomorrow night."
"Yay!" Selena, who had been unusually quiet, piped up crawling on top of the single queen sized bed.
She giggled when she found out how bouncy the mattress was.
"Yeah." Lincoln smiled at her reaction. "Deep dish. Gordon brings them in from Chicago. Uh, you can't miss it."
"Nice to see his gifts aren't being wasted."
"Seriously, rest. I'll see you in the morning."
"Hey." Cal stood up from his cot once he heard a knock on his door. He opened the door, revealing both Skye and Selena. "Um, sorry. I was expecting Gordo."
He pretended not to notice how Selena was cowering away from him. After all, the last time she saw him, she was kidnapped, held captive, and witnessed him beating her close friend to a pulp.
Their relationship wasn't going to mend overnight.
"He can't like you calling him that." Skye joked, making them both laugh silently.
"Oh, he loves it…..come in." He motioned for them to step inside the room. "I….uh…..we missed you last night at dinner." He smiled at Selena.
He had the privilege of having dinner with both Skye and Jaiying the night before. As much as he enjoyed it, he knew that his younger daughter was missing.
"I was tired." Selena told him quietly.
That wasn't true. She didn't want to go to the dinner because she didn't want to intrude on her sister's alone time with her parents. Even if one of those parents was hers, too.
The way she saw it was, she at least had time with Cal before she was taken away…..if what she heard was true. Skye never had any time at all. The least Selena could've done was allow her to have a nice dinner with them and allow her to experience the way her life was supposed to be.
She knew she made the right decision when Skye waltz back to their room, with a large smile on her face.
She wasn't going to take that away from her.
Skye smiled to herself when she heard Selena's pathetic excuse. She knew exactly why she didn't want to go and she was grateful. She had a really good time.
"We'll have to take a rain check." Cal offered. "Uh, so, I was, uh, going to find you today. But, um, I didn't want to overdo it after last night….I tend to overdo — big overdo."
"Yeah, I noticed."
"Oh, so I guess you heard I'm gonna be out of here for a little bit."
"Yeah, I heard."
"Hey, you want to put in an order? I'll bring you back something from the mainland, gossip mags, soda pop? Do you like Funyuns?"
"I'm okay, thank you." Skye stifled a laugh at his eagerness.
"How about you?"
"Me?" Selena pointed to herself. "Cookies."
Cal's face lit up as if he had remembered something, but he didn't comment on it. "You got it."
"So, where are you going? China?"
"What makes you think I'd go there?" Cal almost seemed defensive. "No."
Selena eyed him carefully, wondering why he had such a visceral reaction to a simple question.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Jiaying said that you were going home so I just assumed that….."
"Oh, of course. No, that makes sense. No, I was in China, volunteering for doctors without borders."
"Wow."
"Hard to picture that, right?" Cal chuckled. "I was supposed to be there two weeks, but I met your mother and I couldn't leave. She stole my heart.…No, home is, um, Milwaukee. That's where we were gonna bring you up. I should take you there sometime. I don't know, show you around the old haunts."
"Why not tomorrow? I want to go with you."
Selena gave her sister an odd look, but Skye paid her no mind.
She had a plan.
"Okay." Cal smiled. "Best day ever."
"Thanks, Gordo. Now beat it." Cal addressed the man once he brought him and his daughters to their destination.
Selena didn't think they'd actually end up in Wisconsin so soon, but she was pleasantly surprised to find out that she was wrong. She'd never been to the Cheese State before, so she was excited to see what it was like.
"Cal." Skye lightly admonished, to which Cal gave her an innocent look.
It was obvious that he and Gordon didn't get along.
"I'll be back when you're ready."
"We'll let you know."
Gordon didn't waste any time in teleporting away, leaving the three alone in a dirty alleyway.
Selena had been in plenty of those, so she wasn't weirded out or uncomfortable right now. Looking down, she found a small pebble and hooked it up to her new toy, pulling the band back before she let it fly.
"Put the slingshot away, Selena. I mean it." Skye scolded her sister, after the pebble hit her in the back. "You don't need it."
"Says you." The eleven year old retorted. "You're no fun."
"One."
Selena pouted and shot her sister a pleading look, that had no effect on her. Sometimes Skye forgot that she was her sister and not her mother, though Selena supposed that because her mother wasn't around, Skye filled the void when it was necessary. "I'm sorry."
"Two."
"But it's mine. I wanna hold it." Selena cradled the toy to her chest.
"Two and a half." Skye extended her palm, expectantly. "Last chance."
Cal watched the two with a sort of look of amusement.
They were good for each other.
Selena frowned, not wanting to give it up, but Skye was right. It wasn't like she needed it.
"Can you put in my bag for me?" The child finally relented, handing it over. "Please?"
Skye nodded and waited for her to turn around in order to help her put it away. "I am going to kill Hunter for giving that thing to you. Honestly, what was he thinking?"
"I don't know." Selena shrugged. "I miss him. Can we go see him?"
She loved her Hunter-Time. The Englishman had a talent for making her laugh and they always had a good time together. Sometimes he even played soccer with her, which always ended in a playful argument about how the sport was actually called 'football'.
Selena never called it 'soccer' because in her native tongue, it was 'fútbol'. She just liked to get a rise out of him.
He called her a 'little pickle' for being so cheeky.
"Our first father-daughters date!" Cal grinned as they exited the alleyway. "Though "date" might be the wrong word. Is this weird?"
"Yeah, it's weird. It's a little weird." Skye admitted, holding onto Selena's hand. The brunette was still pouting over the loss of her beloved slingshot even though she knew that this wasn't the place to play with it. "So, did you have an apartment around here, or…."
"Oh, I didn't live here. I worked here. My office is, uh, over there." Cal pointed in the opposite direction of which they were headed.
"Oh, then where are we going? I thought you said you had to grab some of your things."
"No, I told you I wanted to show you around." He corrected. "Thought we'd get a pastry, or maybe a big cookie?" He playfully nudged Selena, who tried to keep the smile off of her face. "Get to know each other a little?"
"Sure. Who doesn't love pastry?"
"Right? Oh, there's this great little mom and pop bakery just around the corner, Swedish place.…Swiss— I don't know, I mix them up."
As the three turned a corner, Cal came to an abrupt stop and looked up at a store front with a complex look on his face.
"What's wrong?" Skye asked.
"You know what doesn't have the smell of buttery goodness wafting out of it on your way to work?"
"A currency exchange?" Skye guessed, following his line of vision.
Cal shrugged and continued along, determined not to let that little set back ruin his day.
He was healthy, he had his two wonderful daughters with him, and he had an amazing dinner the night before.
There was nothing to complain about really. "There's got to be someplace to eat around here."
"So, you had a practice here?" Skye attempted to strike up some conversation as they continued walking down the busy streets.
"Yeah, before I met your mother."
"She was a doctor, too?"
"Studying to be one. She had a natural gift for it. Compassionate, beyond intelligent, wise, always five steps ahead of me. She wanted to finish med school here." Cal explained. "Oh, and there was this great little charter school just around the corner."
"A charter school for medicine?"
"What?" Cal looked at her incredulously. "Oh, no. Not for her, for you. Oh, it was gonna be perfect. I was gonna drop you off every morning and pick you up, help you with your science fair projects— the volcano! Because who doesn't love a volcano, right? We'd go to the father-daughter dances together, get ice cream….ah, the life we could've had…..should've had."
The more Selena listened to Cal reminiscing and dreaming, the more she began to realize that she was never really planned.
She was more of a….replacement.
Cal lost Skye, he went nuts looking for her, he couldn't find her, and then he met her mother and tried to replace Skye with her once she was born.
That certainly put everything into perspective.
"I'm sorry. Memory lane isn't always that fun to visit."
"It's okay."
"Come on, I've got ice cream on the brain."
"Bookstores— dead. Video stores — dead. Old fashioned ice cream shops— dead. The internet is killing everything." Cal lamented.
They couldn't find a single place to eat. Everything was so commercialized now.
"I'm not sure the internet killed ice cream, but, uh, how about we get a forty ounce of malt liquor instead?" Skye suggested cheekily, motioning towards a little corner store. "Selena can even have her first sip."
Both Cal and Selena stopped and gave her a strange look. Obviously, her joke was not well received.
"I'm kidding…sort of."
"Ah!" Cal wagged a finger at her. "I learned something about you, you're funny. That's good."
Skye's smile dropped once she caught sight of three large men walking her way, grunting as one of them bumped into her.
"Hey." But Cal wasn't having any of it. "Hey, where are your manners? Apologize to my daughter."
"Hey." Skye swooped in to amend the situation before it turned into a blood bath. "Hey, calm down, okay? I bumped him. Sorry, that was my bad." She addressed the men.
"Yeah. It's all cool here." Cal shrugged at them.
"You know what?" Skye stopped on front of a small store. "I bet they have ice cream."
"I'll go see."
"Selena, why don't you go in with him?" Skye suggested as Cal walked away.
Selena gave her sister a very unimpressed look. "Why?"
"I just need you to keep him distracted."
"Why?" She raised a brow. "What are you gonna do?"
"I'm gonna make a call. Now will you just go in and keep him busy?"
"Can I play with my slingshot again?" Selena grinned cheekily, but the smile quickly dropped from her face when she caught the glare her sister was giving her. "I'm going in right now, okay, Skye?" She backed away very slowly, only turning around once she was at the door.
Skye shook her head as she pulled her phone out of her pocket, dialing exactly who she needed to speak with.
Inside, Selena followed Cal around, looking at all the different types of junk food on the shelves. She didn't get much junk food on the base. Coulson was big about having a healthy diet. So seeing all of these snacks made Selena want to go crazy and eat all of it.
"So, what kind of ice cream do you like?" Cal asked to strike up a conversation.
"Doesn't matter.…not mint or pistachio and rocky road." She screwed up her face, making him laugh.
Mint tasted like cold toothpaste and why would anyone want nuts in their ice cream?
"I'll surprise you then."
"Okay." She shrugged and looked out the glass door to see if Skye was still in the same place they had left her.
"December 23, 2004." Cal spoke offhandedly, catching her attention again once the reached the register.
"Huh?"
"December 20, 2004. That's the day you were born." Cal clarified. "9:00AM in Midtown. It was a very snowy day. Extremely cold. Your mother and I actually walked straight to the hospital when her water broke, because there was far too much traffic to take a cab. I was a wreck, slipping and sliding through the snow, but she was so calm, so prepared. You came out at five pounds, seven ounces and a full head of hair."
So, Selena wasn't actually eleven, she was ten. And she was born in the winter, as opposed to the spring like she originally was allowed to believe.
"You were so beautiful— you still are, and your smile still lights up the room. Your favorite place was Fifth Avenue…..when you saw the lights and the different people walking by, you giggled so brilliantly….." Cal trailed off to pay for the ice cream. "You're precious. Don't think that because I've been spending so much time with Skye and her mother, that I don't care about you. December 20, 2004 was just as phenomenal and just as special as July 2, 1988."
Selena blinked back tears. The little seed of doubt, vanishing just as quickly as it had come.
"May?" Skye had dialed her S.O. as soon as Selena and Cal were out of earshot. "It's Skye. I need to talk to Coulson."
"Skye? Where are you?" May asked, worried for her young charge. "Are you alright? Is Selena still with you?"
"Yeah, we're okay, but I don't have much time. Where's Coulson?"
"He's out looking for you. Where have you been?"
"I'm with Cal, but I won't be for long and when I leave him, he's gonna be pissed. Okay? Dangerous. S.H.I.E.L.D. needs to come get him and make sure he's doesn't hurt anyone."
"Skye, slow down."
"Look, there's no time to explain. Please, it's just too complicated." Skye spoke frantically as Selena and Cal exited the small store. "Just don't hurt him."
"Skye?" May tried once again to get answers, but Skye had already thrown her cellphone in a trash bin nearby.
She couldn't answer, but it gave then time to find a location.
"I got Neapolitan and Vanilla." Cal smiled at her.
"Uh, you pick."
Cal expertly handed Skye the Neapolitan bar as they continued walking once again. "No peeking, I want to surprise you." He told Selena.
"Okay."
Cal unwrapped the bar he had bought her and handed it over, watching eagerly as she bit into it.
An earsplitting grin flew onto her face and she looked at him with the same twinkle in her eye that he had seen all those years ago.
"You still can't resist a good strawberry." He was glad that some things never changed. "That's good to know."
"Still?" Skye questioned, intrigued to have information about when her sister was a baby.
"Oh yeah. You told me that she's a cookie monster? Strawberries had nothing on cookies." Cal confirmed. "It was practically the only thing she would ever eat. Her mother and I were worried sick, because she wouldn't eat anything with protein or other nutrients..…just those strawberry purées."
"How did you get her to eat real food?" Skye asked, taking notice of how Selena had tuned the rest of the world out in favor of stuffing her face with her strawberry ice cream popsicle. "Wow, you weren't kidding."
"We'd bribe her. She's very smart and she knew how to get what she wanted, so we played her little game, but with a twist. She couldn't have anything with strawberries until she ate. That was the rule."
"And how did that go?"
"Not well at first, but then she started to realize that the sooner she did what we wanted, the sooner shed get what she wanted."
"I'll remember that." Skye chuckled.
Selene was seriously in her own little world right now. She was getting the frozen treat all over her face and the top of her shirt.
But it didn't matter. It was kind of cute. She was enjoying something that she clearly loved.
"What was she like as a baby?"
"She was a little ball of energy." Cal chuckled at his memories. "Not shy at all, loved music and singing. I think she started singing before she started talking." That made Skye laugh. "Always marched to beat of her own drum, very very stubborn — nothing could keep her tied down. She's a lot like you in more ways than one…..ran before she could walk. We had to Selena-Proof everything."
"We have to do that now." Skye shook her head. "She gets into everything anyway."
"I do not!" Selena protested, finishing her treat. "I stay away from the stuff I'm not supposed to touch!"
"I'm sure Fitz would beg to differ." Skye retorted, referring to the little incident where Selena had made something explode in the lab after Fitx had specifically told her not to touch anything. Another story for another time. "And you're a mess."
"Here, I have a few napkins."
Selena reached for them, but Skye took them before she could touch them, aggressively wiping the child's face free of sugar. "Not so hard! I can do it myself!"
"You wouldn't get everything if you did it yourself." The older girl licked her thumb and rubbed some of the ice cream off of her cheek, making her squeal. "Hold still."
"Gross! You're disgusting! This is madness!" Selena carried on dramatically, making people passing by chuckle in amusement.
"Was she always this dramatic?" Skye finished up and threw everything away.
"Always. Tell you what?" Cal suggested after the conversation died down. "Let's head over to my old office, okay? There's something there I want to show you, something really special."
"Please, uh, excuse the mess." Cal apologized as he led Skye and Selena through an empty building. "And…the roaches."
"Johnson, is that your last name?" Skye asked as they made their way to a door, marked, C.L. Johnson, M.D.
"Was." Cal began to unlock the door. "Pretty ordinary, huh? I changed it to something more sinister when I went on the run." He grinned, opening the door and entering the room.
"Daisy and Violet Johnson." Daisy muttered to herself before following him. "Huh."
"Skye, don't you have one of these?" Selena asked, beginning to play with a little hula girl bobble head she found on Cal's desk.
"I did."
"Coincidence? I think not. Keep it if you like."
Skye made no move to take it, but instead watched him as he walked over to some filing cabinets.
"How is all this stuff still here?"
"I own the building."
"You own the building?" Selena seemed to be impressed by that.
"Mmhmm. Every wall, every bulb, every cockroach." Cal confirmed. "I wasn't rich, but you would've grown up quite comfortable." He began to look through his desk drawers. "Had to shutter everything down after, uh, well, you know. Only been back a few times over the years."
"So, this is like your stash pad, where you keep all your old stuff?"
"Oh, I like the sound of that, "stash pad". Makes it sound better than a crappy office."
"What's that?" Selena asked him when he pulled a small satchel from the drawer.
"My grandfather's field kit from WWII." He responded, opening it, revealing many medicinal instruments. "I used this to put your mother back together again. Truth is, her gift was the real healer. She's a walking miracle, your mother." He looked at Skye. "The way she suffered and endured and fought through it."
"You still love her."
"How could I not?" Cal's voice was laced with sadness. "I mean, I know she resented me for a time after we lost you, and when I tried to move on, but I think now that we're back together, that we can—"
"—Please, stop." Skye shook her head, unwilling to listen to any more of this.
"What? What did I say?"
"We're not all back together. You can't hang on to the past like this. You need to move on. We all do. Jiaying, she's responsible for all those people, and I…..I'm an adult now. And as much as you want to turn back the clock to the time of science fairs and father daughter dances….."
"They're gone. Yeah, I know. I know."
"But, look, it doesn't mean that we can't see each other. Selena and I, we can visit."
"Visit? Where are you going?"
"Yeah." Selena furrowed her eyebrows. "Where are we going?"
The slamming of a door in the distance made certain that the two wouldn't get their answer.
"Who's there?" Cal grabbed a scalpel from his kit and left the little office, entering the hallway. "Come out where I can see you."
"Relax, it's just me." Lincoln revealed himself.
"Lincoln, what are you doing here?" Skye rushed towards him, sighing in relief.
"Jiaying sent me to make sure everything was cool."
"Why wouldn't everything be cool?" Cal was ready to defend himself, stabbing the scalpel he was holding into a filing cabinet. "What's going on here?…..Wait a minute, you think Daisy and Violet aren't safe with me?"
"I didn't say that." Lincoln tried to keep him calm. "Just calm down."
"Don't patronize me. Who do you think you are? I'm their father!"
Selena, who was standing timidly behind Cal, shared an alarmed look with her sister.
What was he going to do?
"Cal, let me explain." Skye tried.
"No." Cal held up a hand to stop her. "What an idiot I've been, huh? This isn't daddy's day out. This is goodbye."
"It's not forever. It….It's…" Skye began to approach him, but Lincoln held her back.
"Skye, don't."
"Her name is Daisy!" Cal snapped, making Selena flinch and back into the doorway just incase.
He managed to grab hold of Lincoln and throw him into a filing cabinet, making Selena scream and cover her eyes, while she peeked out from between her fingers.
"Cal!"
"After everything I did for Jiaying! For our family!"
As he had his meltdown, Skye rushed over to Lincoln and helped him back onto his feet.
"Cal, I'm warning you." Lincoln didn't want to hurt their father, but the man was a loose cannon.
"Oh, you're warning me?"
"Watch out!" Skye warned as a Hydra soldier emerged from the top of the staircase.
Lincoln, without hesitation took the guy out and kept himself on high alert for any more soldiers.
"What is S.H.I.E.L.D. doing here?"
"That's not S.H.I.E.L.D., it's Hydra."
Once the words left Skye's mouth, more soldier could be heard running up the staircase with their weapons drawn, flooding into the hallway.
"Get them out of here." Cal instructed Lincoln, turning to all the soldiers. "I'll take care of this. Hey, fellas!"
Skye started after her father, but Lincoln, once again, pulled her back. "I can handle myself."
"No." He shook his head. "Don't use your powers. You could bring this whole building down. Get your sister and get out of here. I'll help hold them off." The soldiers began to fire their weapons, so he grabbed Skye and sent them both hurtling towards the ground with her landing on top of him. "Just go, please?"
Skye stared for a second, getting up and running to get her sister out of their father's office, grateful that she had stayed there this entire time. "Selena, let's go." She pulled her to a run. "We have to go, Munchie."
Selena didn't hesitate to run with her sister up another flight of stairs to the roof, but when they realized that there was nowhere to go, they ran right back down to figure something else out.
"Don't stop running!" Skye instructed, pushing Selena in front of her, ignoring the sound of bullets that were getting louder and louder. "I'm right behind you!"
Selena gasped and came to a stop, crashing onto her stomach as she lost her footing, when she saw two men fighting the Hydra soldiers right in front of her.
It was Coulson and Ward.
Grant Ward.
What was he doing here?
Ward handed a gun to Coulson once they took the soldiers out and just as Coulson reached to take the gun, he noticed Skye and Selena staring at him.
"Skye? Selena?"
"Coulson?" Skye began to rush towards him, but Gordon teleported directly in front of her, wrapping her in his arms.
"I need to get you out of here." Was all he said.
"No! No! No! Not yet!" Skye protested, but it fell on deaf ears as Gordon vanished with her.
"No! Don't go!" Coulson shouted, but it was too late.
Selena, who was still a little bewildered from haven taken such a hard fall, pushed herself up onto her knees and stared as a soldier, who she was sure was out of the count, began to come to.
Ward, as perceptive as ever, followed her line of vision and kicked the man, knocking him out again.
Coulson ran straight to Selena and helped her up, holding her tightly, happy that he had at least found her. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"
"I'm okay." Selena nodded. "My knee kinda hurts, though."
"Yeah, you took a hard fall." Coulson took a look at her knee. The fabric on her jeans had ripped, revealing her bloodied knee. "Get Simmons to take a look at that when we get back."
"We're going home?" Selena perked up.
"We're going home." He smiled gently, frowning when he saw the new look on Selena's face.
"Watch out!" Selena warned the two men.
Another soldier had tried to sneak up on them, but Coulson and Ward both reacted at the same time, each of them firing a single shot.
Coulson from the front and Ward from behind.
"Selena, close your eyes." Ward instructed.
"Why?"
"Don't ask questions, just do as you're told. Close 'em. Right now."
He was using that tone of voice that he used to use whenever he wanted Selena to do something. That time had long since passed, but it was hard for Selena not to comply.
Ward waited for the girl to do just that, before he shot the fallen soldier twice more. "Okay, you're good. You can open them again."
Selena's eye reopened and she shared a funny look with Coulson.
This was totally weird.
"Deathlok's down." Ward ignored their little silent conversation. "We've got powered people on-site, Hydra's storming the building." He listed, wanting to know what the next move was.
"Hunter!" Selena cried, hearing his groan as he limped down the opposite side of the hallway with his arm around a woman she didn't know.
"Good to see you, too, love." He grimaced.
"What happened to you?" Coulson questioned, eyeing the bullet wound that he was nursing.
"Ah, it's merely a flesh wound."
"A bad one." The woman said.
"We're outmanned, outgunned and our only back up is Fitz. Your call, boss."
Boss? Alright, now this was getting weird.
"Selena, I know this doesn't look at all comforting." Coulson saw the look on her face. "Ward is here to help us."
"He tried to kill me." Selena deadpanned. "And then he lied to me…and then he drugged me and kidnapped me."
"Ward!" The woman's jaw dropped. "She's a kid!"
"She wasn't supposed to be in that containment pod." Ward explained himself, looking directly at Selena. "I wasn't trying to kill her. The lies were a mistake on my part and I kidnapped her to bring her to her father."
"And you want me to believe that he's here to help?"
"I know how it looks, but this is different. You once told me that my trust is important to you, right? Well yours is just as important to me. I need you to trust me, okay? Can you do that? Do you trust me?"
"Yes." Selena answered without hesitation.
"He and Kara, are here to help us. They helped us find you and Skye. They aren't here to hurt us."
"You want me to go with them." Selena was ten, she wasn't an idiot.
"Yes." Coulson nodded. "I'll see you in a couple of hours, I promise. Hunter is going with you and Fitz is back on the quinjet. You're going to be okay."
"Okay." Selena relented. "You have to promise not do anything mean." She pointed at Ward. "You always keep your promises."
"Selena, I promise that I will not do anything mean to you." Ward obliged. "I will never do anything to hurt you again."
That was good enough for her. Ward did always keep his promises.
His word was good.
"Bye, Cheese." Selena saluted Coulson, limping away from him.
She had really taken a bad fall and her knee was burning. If Hunter wasn't so banged up, he would've carried her.
"Let's go, Selena." The Englishman followed her with Kara's help. "Fitz really missed you."